Alejandro Garmendia, an artist yet “to be discovered”
By EFE, March 1, 2018
The Sala Kubo in San Sebastián exhibits the first retrospective of the San Sebastian painter and photographer Alejandro Garmendia after his death in February 2017, entitled “Landscapes, enigma and melancholy”. EFE
The Sala Kubo in San Sebastián dedicates to Alejandro Garmendia, an artist “to be discovered” after his premature death a year ago, an exhibition that covers his multidisciplinary career in areas such as comics, music and audiovisuals and, above all, painting and “collage.”
”Landscapes, enigma and melancholy” is the title that has been given to this anthology, words that summarize the character of the work of ”a creative genius,” as defined by Fernando Golvano, curator of the exhibition.
More than a hundred visual and sound works will be able to be seen in the spaces of the Kursaal exhibition hall from tomorrow until May 27, a border crossing from one genre to another that took place parallel to the nomadic vitality of Garmendia, who lived in Bordeaux, Paris, Bilbao, Barcelona, Madrid, New York, Edinburgh and Hendaye.
The painter, whose family and friends called Sander, died on February 2017 at the age of 57. At his funeral this show began to take shape, and among others, it was promoted by his son Nicolás, also an artist who died a few months later.
The exhibition is dedicated to both their memory, the presentation was attended today by Garmendia’s widow, Gill Connon, his sister, Olatz López Garmendia, and his nephew, Cy Schnabel, son of the painter Julian Schnabel, with whom Sander collaborated, for example, in his film ”Berlin,” which brought back Lou Reed’s iconic album in concert.
His facility for drawing and his narrative vocation guided him in his early years to become interested in comics and graffiti, while his interest in music prompted him to create the group Fat Esteban in 1991 and from 2005 to develop pieces of experimental music.
The visit begins with these early works from the 1980s, and it continues through a second room where you can see works of small and large formats, ”collages” and oil paintings.
Watery atmospheres are then found, along with installations and videos of his long stay in New York, where he lived in the legendary Chelsea Hotel.
Garmendia’s abstract landscapes, key in his career, the box-sculptures and digital photomontages are also part of the successive creative stages of this author, who in the mid-90s invented a working method called, ”coctailtecnic,” by means of which he elaborated works from chance.
Most of the works on display come from private collections, although there are also others from entities such as the Museo Reina Sofía and Kutxa Fundazioa.
“Translated from the original Spanish”
